PHELAN, BERNARDIN TO MEET ON COUNTY ABORTION POLICY

Michael Hirsley, Religion writerCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The leader of Chicago`s Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the newly elected leader of Cook County government plan to meet next week to discuss their differences over publicly funded abortions at Cook County Hospital.

Cook County Board President-elect Richard Phelan reiterated a campaign promise to lift County Hospital`s decade-long abortion ban. He said government ''must be neutral, and in this case it is not neutral. It is discriminating against the poor, who can`t afford to pay for abortions.''

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin has said he wants to express directly to Phelan and County Board members his concern that ending the hospital`s abortion ban- which covered all cases except those in which the mother`s life was endangered-was ''wrong in principle.''

Resuming publicly funded abortions at the hospital would ''violate the sacredness of human life in the womb,'' Bernardin said. It would cut resources for other medical services such as prenatal and parental programs at the hospital, he added, and would force taxpayers to support activity, ''which many of them find fundamentally objectionable.''

Phelan declined to state his personal position on abortion, saying instead that he is a practicing Catholic in ''a pluralistic society,'' and

''I`m not advocating or condemning abortion.''

According to Bernardin, politicians who personally oppose abortion but take no public stance to uphold that church teaching are guilty of

''unacceptable fulfillment of a public role.''

Phelan said a meeting has been scheduled for next week with Bernardin, who is at a national bishops` meeting in Washington this week.

In a prepared statement last week, the cardinal cited the archdiocese Respect Life office and Catholic Charities for offering pregnant women assistance with medical costs and housing, as alternatives to abortion.